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It wasn’t that Misaki didn’t like being outside. Going out was always more enjoyable than sitting at home alone - she could play tennis, grab some coffee and sit on a bench while sewing a new plush for her sister, or even just go on a short walk and enjoy some fresh air. As long as the weather was bearable, being outdoors wasn’t all that bad.
Of course, taking an hour long walk before heading back to the safety of her house was much, much different than her current situation. Enjoying nature in the familiar area she lived in was not, in any way, the same as being driven three hours away to some mountain she didn’t even know existed, only to set up a singular tent and go camping with her entire band.
Somehow, though, that was her reality. In the pitch black darkness of the night, she laid in a (shockingly spacious) sleeping bag, along with the other members of HelloHappy. It was sort of stuffy in there, seeing as it was in the middle of summer and she was sharing a tent with four other girls - not to mention the irritating buzzing of bugs droning along throughout the night, and the occasional snapping of a branch that maybe made her flinch quite a few times. All in all, she came to the conclusion a few hours prior that she wouldn’t be getting any sleep that night. Not that it really mattered; she could just sleep on the ride home. Assuming that they would head home the next day, anyways. Who knows what Kokoro could possibly have planned?
Misaki shifted to the right a bit, hoping to relieve some of the pressure on her left leg - which had practically fallen asleep after being sandwiched between herself and Kaoru for… Probably two hours. She didn’t know for sure, considering her phone was across the tent and nestled safely in her bag.
After slowly, carefully moving into a more comfortable position, she let out a small sigh, one she figured would go unheard among her unconscious bandmates.
That is, until a high-pitched, unmistakable voice broke the long-lasting silence.
“Mii-kun?”
Along with the hushed call, Misaki felt a tap on her right arm. Hagumi had reached over Kokoro, orange eyes just barely visible in the pitch black.
“Shh,” was her only response. Waking up Kokoro would be the worst case scenario, because then the blonde would never fall back asleep - and the only thing worse than being awake at four in the morning was being awake with Kokoro at four in the morning.
Hagumi didn’t pay it any mind, though. Not that Misaki really expected her to, but it would’ve been appreciated.
“Mii-kun, follow me!” Though her voice was still a hushed whisper, Hagumi still managed to sound as excitable as always as she slipped out of her sleeping bag. Misaki couldn’t see her, only able to hear the shuffling caused by the movement. Weighing her options, Misaki mulled only for a moment over what she should do - it was short lived, though. Once the tent door opened and the faint moonlight poured inside, she knew she didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Maybe she was also a little concerned, letting Hagumi wander off on her own at such a late hour. Knowing her, she’d probably try and hug any wild bear that she saw…
Misaki successfully escaped the confines of the sleeping bag, making sure not to step on anyone as she stumbled out into the small opening. It was still really dark, and Misaki took a few careful steps once she was outside.
“Hagumi?” She called out, low enough to go unnoticed by the three sleeping girls in the tent.
“Mii-kun!” Before Misaki could react, her arm was grabbed, and a familiar figure hugged her tight. “I’m happy you were awake! I couldn’t sleep, and I was starting to get really fidgety…”
Misaki couldn’t deny that she, too, was itching for something to do as well. Shrugging to the best of her ability, she looked away, hoping Hagumi couldn’t see the small smile dancing along her lips.
“Yeah, me too. You shouldn’t go running out of the tent alone though. It’s dangerous.”
“Oh, did I make you worry? I’m sorry!”
To that, Misaki tried to stammer out a denial, but Hagumi was quick to continue.
“I just really wanted to try something out! I forgot about it when everyone was awake, but I wanted to do it before the sun came up…” Pulling away, Hagumi walked off towards the tent, and Misaki heard her pick up what sounded like a box.
“H-hey, don’t wander off too far. I can’t see that well in the dark, you know.”
“It’s okay! I have good eyes.”
Hagumi bounced up towards Misaki again, hooking their arms together before she pulled Misaki a few feet away from the tent. Dead grass crumbled beneath their feet, and Misaki wished she didn’t instinctively hold onto Hagumi tighter with each sound she heard.
“Oookay, here is good. Sit down, Mii-kun.” Hagumi kept ahold of Misaki’s arm, only pulling away a little as they sat on the cold grass. Once they got into comfortable positions on their knees, Hagumi shuffled closer until their thighs touched.
Hagumi fumbled with the box for a moment, and Misaki squinted through the dark to try and see what it was.
“I have sparklers!” Hagumi announced, pulling one out along with a match. “Help me light one, Mii-kun!”
“Okay, first of all, please hand over the match.” Misaki held a hand out as she spoke, and the other quickly obliged, dropping the small match into her palm. The last thing Misaki wanted was for a forest fire to start because of Hagumi.
Reaching into the container, Misaki groped around its contents until she felt the match box. Pulling it up, she carefully swept the match across the inside of the lid, until a small fire lit. Hagumi’s eyes brightened along with the fire, and she held out her sparkler eagerly.
“Careful,” Misaki warned, before lighting it. The sparkler crackled to life, and Hagumi let out a cheerful laugh that had Misaki’s heart skipping a beat or two. Hoping to distract herself from the feeling, she grabbed herself a sparkler, lighting that one as well before blowing the match out.
The two sat in silence for a few moments - well, more like Misaki was silent, while Hagumi let out quite a few ooh s and aah s.
As difficult as it was for her to admit, Misaki felt rather at peace in that moment. She probably shouldn’t have, not when they were out in the middle of a forest at an ungodly hour. But in that moment, watching the small fireworks burst to life and the pure amazement painted all over Hagumi’s expression, it was hard not to enjoy herself.
“Haven’t you ever held a sparkler before?” Misaki asked, not really thinking as the words slipped out. Warm eyes flickered up towards her, still filled with wonder, and Misaki’s icy-blue ones met her gaze.
“Nope! I bought them a while ago, but mom never had time to go out and use them with me.” Hagumi pressed closer to Misaki as she spoke, eyes falling back down to the sparkler. “I didn’t wanna do it alone, though, because that ruins the magic of it!”
“Oh… Sorry.”
“Hm? Why are you sorry?”
Hagumi looked back over at her - and Misaki didn’t look up that time.
“Uh, it’s nothing. Forget it.”
That time, both girls fell silent - only for a few moments. Hagumi wasn’t one for sitting quietly for very long, after all.
“Do you play with sparklers a lot during the summer?” Hagumi asked, shaking hers slightly as the flame began to die down.
Misaki hummed for a moment, eyes trained in her own fading spark. “Sometimes, if I got extra spending money from work, I’d buy some and let my siblings play with them.” It had been awhile since she did that with them, but Misaki opted to leave that part out.
Hagumi blew out a small puff of air at her sparkler, which had almost completely died out. Under the faint glow of Misaki’s weak spark, the bassists glowing smile was still visible. “I forgot you had siblings! I wanna play with them sometime! Can I play with them? Ooh, do they like softball?”
“My brother likes running around. Not so much my sister, though, aha…” The flame died out, and Misaki lowered her arm.
“Hmm… Oh! Then, next time you get some sparklers, invite me over! I wanna light them with you guys.”
“Huh? U-uh, I mean… Okay, yeah. Sure.”
Even if Hagumi had practically invited herself over, Misaki couldn’t help but feel a bit happy - though she didn’t exactly know why.
While Misaki mulled over that, Hagumi reached for another sparkler. In the process, she moved away from Misaki’s side, instead moving to sit directly across from her.
“Mii-kun, light me one more!” With the way Hagumi waved the stick at her, Misaki didn’t have much of a choice. So, pulling out another match, she lit up the sparkler. It lit up, a small burst of yellow and orange sparking between them, and Misaki found that Hagumi’s eyes were focused right on her.
“Hagumi?”
“Mii-kun!” Along with her exclamation, Hagumi reached out with her free hand, grabbing Misaki’s and holding it tight. Her bright smile was untelling of her intentions, and all Misaki could do was gape at her in slight confusion.
The small firework crackled between them, lighting up their faces with a gentle yellow glow. Though Hagumi seemed to always shine, it became much more prominent in that moment - to Misaki, at least.
“Thank you, Mii-kun.”
“Wh-what? I didn’t really do anything…” She tensed up a bit unconsciously, and Hagumi brushed her thumb along her hand.
“But you came out here with me, even though you were nervous! I’m really happy that you did.”
“Nervous? I wasn’t n--"
“I’m also really glad I get to see you like this. You look sooo pretty when you hold a sparkler!”
Huh?
Misaki wanted to respond, but her brain practically short circuited, and she couldn’t seem to put together a coherent sentence to answer with. What was Hagumi even going on about?
“S-seriously, cut that out… You exaggerate so much sometimes.”
Though she hid behind her modest remark, Misaki couldn’t help the way her face burned with embarrassment. Surely the sparkler illuminated her face enough to make her small smile and flustered state prominent. How embarrassing. Hopefully Hagumi was too dense to notice.
“I’m not exaggerating! You’re kinda like a sparkler, actually…”
It wasn’t a comparison that Misaki heard often, that was certain. Coughing a bit awkwardly, she turned her face away, throwing a side glance towards Hagumi. “A sparkler, huh?”
Hagumi kept her eyes trained on Misaki, even as the firework between them began to die down. Enthusiastically, she nodded, orange locks hair bouncing with the movement. “Yeah, yeah! They don’t really look like much at first. But when you light a fire in them, they glow super, suuuper bright!”
Dropping the now lifeless sparkler, Hagumi quickly grabbed Misaki’s other hand - her long-dead sparkler fell to the ground, too, but that was the least of her worries in that moment. Her mind could hardly keep up with whatever was happening - it was way too late for this.
What did Hagumi even mean? What was it that allowed Misaki to shine? In all honestly, even Misaki didn’t think that she was all that radiant, especially compared to her bandmates--
Oh.
Maybe it was Hello, Happy World! that allowed her to shine. Kokoro, Kanon, Kaoru, Hagumi-- being with them brought out the best in her, even if she didn’t want to admit that.
“Mii-kun? Did I say something weird? You’re making a funny face, there.”
“H-Hagumi!” Misaki felt her face grow warmer with embarrassment, but she still couldn’t help the way her chest swelled with pure joy. The three morons were a handful; that was undeniable, but… It really was growing more and more difficult to hide how much they really meant to her.
Hagumi laughed at Misaki’s sudden outburst, tightening the grip on her hands. Maybe Misaki let out a small chuckle, too.
It was quiet for a bit after that. It was rare, having quiet moments like this with Hagumi - but it certainly wasn’t unpleasant. In fact, Misaki found it quite soothing. Listening to the sounds of nature while Hagumi traced small circles on the backs of Misaki’s hands with her thumbs… Yeah, it was nice. Not that she could ever say that aloud, even if she wanted to.
The two of them sat there for ten minutes - maybe more, who knows - before something caught Hagumi’s attention. Perking up, the bassists eyes filled with wonder as she looked off behind Misaki.
“Mii-kun, look! The sun is coming up!”
Trying her best to twist her back far enough, Misaki looked out towards the horizon behind her - and, sure enough, a gentle glow was starting to dye the dark sky with a soft blue and orange hue.
“Aah, I haven’t seen the sun rise in ages…” Misaki wasn’t really the type to pull all nighters willingly - and whenever she accidentally did, her blinds were usually tightly shut.
“Oh, really? Sometimes when my mom and dad are yelling really loud at night, my brother and I sit in his room and wait for the sun to come up! C’mon, let's go watch!!”
Before Misaki could even react to the huge weight of Hagumi’s words, the ever-so energetic bassist rose to her feet - and, in turn, pulled Misaki up with her. Hagumi released her right hand so that they could walk, and Misaki quickly shoved it in her parka’s pocket in the hopes that the warmth could be emulated. It wasn’t, but she didn’t say anything about missing the feeling of her hand in Hagumi’s. That kind of thing was too embarrassing for her poor heart to handle.
With Hagumi practically dragging her along, the two started off in the direction of the sunset. When Hagumi started towards a more dense part of the forest, Misaki came to her senses and tugged on their joined hands.
“H-hey, I don’t think we should go off in here alone… Uh, it’s still pretty dark, and we don’t really know what’s out here.” Misaki tried not to sound too nervous, because she definitely, 100% wasn’t nervous… Probably.
“Hmm? Are you scared?” Hagumi stopped in her tracks, looking back at the brunette.
“N-no, not really… But, it’s better to be safe than sorry, yeah?”
Hagumi hummed to herself for a moment, before redirecting her focus back to Misaki and giving a smile that could rival the sun.
“It’ll be okay, Mii-kun! Kokoron’s family owns this mountain, so I’m sure it’s safe!” She accentuated her point with a confident nod, squeezing Misaki’s hand lightly. “And if something does happen, I’ll definitely protect you! So don’t be nervous, okay?”
She was still on edge about it, but knew that arguing with someone like Hagumi was futile. So, with a defeated sigh, Misaki nodded.
“Okay. Let’s hurry and get somewhere less… Dark."
“Yay! Okay, let’s go!” Hagumi began walking forwards once again, and Misaki followed right alongside her. “If you get nervous again, just remember Kokoron’s magical words! Happiness! Happy Magical~!”
“Ahaha, okay, I will. Thanks, Hagumi.”
Misaki could only hope that Hagumi knew where she was going as they walked along the coarse dirt below the trees - and, as they came across a clearing after a few minutes of walking, she could practically feel the tension seep out of her shoulders.
“Wooah! Mii-kun, look at how clear the sky looks from here!”
“I’m looking, I’m looking.”
The sun had crawled a bit further above the horizon during their small journey, all kinds of oranges, pinks, and blues mixing as far as the eye could see. Hagumi released her hand, instead hooking their arms together and holding Misaki close.
Though there was a slight breeze that morning, a warmth spread all throughout Misaki’s body. It was a pleasant warmth, though - far from the kind she felt while held captive in that stuffy bear suit.
Briefly, she wondered if Hagumi was aware that she shone even brighter than the sun that they were watching. Misaki was hardly able to let herself watch as the sky filled with color, deciding that the glowing smile and shimmering gaze of Hagumi’s was a much, much more breathtaking sight.